90% Reduction Plan

All right, I’ve been working on my reduction plan. I know I’m doing this at the last hour, but here goes. This project is going to be hard to do with two people in the house (at least for the summer), one of whom isn’t involved. But I’m going to do my best.

1.) Gasoline. Current Usage: 336 gallons per year. Goal: 50 gallons per year. This will be tough, given that I live in an area without public transit. My primary destinations are: school (5 miles round trip, 3-4x a week, depending on the semester), the artists market (10 miles round trip 1x per week), my grandmothers (20 miles round trip, 1x per week), and church (10 miles round trip, 1x per week). I also occasionally have to run to the store as well. That’s 60 miles, or roughly 2 gallons of gas, a week. Right there that’s a 104 gallons a year, or more than twice the allowed limit. But, I still use another 232 gallons of gas a year, and there I definitely have opportunities to cut. So here’s my plans to cut:
-limit trips to the store and farmer’s market to no more than twice a month, preferably once. (Save in the event of an emergency.)
-limit social outings to twice a month.
-limit trips to the library to twice a month, and only then on the way home from church (it’s on the way).
I’m also going to Canada for ten days in August (a trip that I’ve all ready had planned) so that will burn some gas. But, I am going by bus so that will fall under public transport.

2.) Electricity. I’m screwed as far as getting down to 90kWh per year is concerned, since I have an all electric house. Since my power is renewable –at least the first 300 kWh/month –this is not the highest on my list to reduce below the 300 kWh/month mark. Toward that end I’ll be making some changes though:
-keeping the ac off as much as possible (once the smoke clears, at any rate)
-unplugging the microwave when not in use
-reducing the amount of laundry I generate, and always using the clothesline
-trying to cook only two or three times a week, and trying to bake only one day a week.
I’m not going to be getting rid of my fridge like some are doing. I use it to keep leftovers, and to freeze food for future meals. This is crucial to my being able to eat right during semesters. Once I get out of school this won’t be so much of an issue.

3.) Heating and Cooking Energy –not applicable; included under Electricity usage above.

4.) Garbage and Recycling. Garbage –for my personal trash production I’m almost there. I’m going to work on reducing the amount of packaging coming into the house. I’ve been working on this for some time but obviously have more work to do. But how the devil do I reduce the amount of cat litter and waste? Any ideas?
Recycling –I am a BIG recycler. I try to recycle everything, including a lot of things that would go into other people’s trash. Cardboard boxes, cans, plastic bottles, and glass, all go to the recycler. I’m not sure how much I produce, so I need to measure this, but it’s obvious I need to cut down on the number of canned goods and boxes coming into the house.

5.) Water –I’m going to install rain barrels to use for watering the ornamentals (when it finally rains again). And I’m going to start using more graywater. I also had to talk to my brother about his water usage yesterday. Not because of this project really, but because of the drought and my pocketbook. The boy is a water hog –he can’t stand taking less than a twenty minute shower everyday. (Sometimes twice a day.) He has literally doubled my water usage in the few weeks he’s been here. So I spoke with him and he’s agreed to do better.

6.) Consumer Goods –I’m about there right now, thanks to compacting and a frugal sensibility. I need to find out how food plants fits into this though.

7.) Food. I’m going to get all my fresh fruits and veggies exclusively from my garden and the farmer’s market. I’m going to start eating more fresh foods as opposed to bulk. I’ll start canning and freezing more of my own food instead of buying so much canned foods. I’m going to reduce the amount of dairy and all processed foods still further –crackers, chili, etc. I am also going to extend my garden beds so that I can grow more of my own food, and this fall I hope to try my hand at small scale grain production (in the form of oats).

Another Piece of Lawn Done Gone

Yesterday after the rain stopped, I went outside, took up my trusty shovel, and began to dig up a patch of lawn. I’ve been doing this every time it rains here lately, while the ground is nice and soft and the grass is somewhat easier to dig. My goal is to dig up a patch of lawn after every rain and plant something until I no longer have any lawn left. All ready I’ve dug forty of fifty square feet of lawn. (And that’s not counting what I seeded with wildflowers.) I don’t just do this willy nilly. I decide in advance where I’m going to dig after the next rain and what I’m going to plant there. Last time I planted some melons and basil. This time I transplanted some herbs –lemon balm, greek oregano, thyme, pineapple sage, and rosemary –and some flowers as well. Hopefully, if I can keep this up, in a year or so I won’t have much of a lawn to speak of. My lawn-worshipping neighbors will, of course, be absolutely horrified. ;-)
In the meantime, I’m slowly sketching out and planning the front garden. I am also of course, working on what I got. I mulched all the beds again today (especially the potatoes) and planted some more cherry tomatoes. I also potted my two new lavender plants. I’ve also vacuumed and picked up the house, did laundry, started the dishes, and started cleaning the much reviled bathroom. I’ve had quite a day –and it’s not over yet! Sharon and Miranda have finally posted the “rules” for the 90% reduction in emissions over on Miranda’s blog (see link on mine to Simple Reduce). In a few days I’ll set down and calculate my baseline and post it here.
How is the coffee reduction going? Not bad, actually. I get a little grumpy in the morning without my usual two cups. It’ll be even worse when I stop drinking it at all. But I’m going to stick with it. This is the best thing to do for the planet. (And it won’t hurt my pocketbook any, either.)

A Confession to Make

I have a confession to make: I used the dryer the other night. Not because I really wanted to, but because at the time it seemed like I had no choice. I have my brother’s cats with me while he’s in school because he can’t have them there. They’re nice cats and they get along well with my animals, but one really, really likes to mark his territory. Not on the floor thank goodness –but on any handy pile of fabric. I’ve been unable to break him of it despite trying. So, I keep him locked out of the bedrooms and the laundry room and keep the couch cushions on end when I’m not using them. That’s not as big a sacrifice as it seems –I rarely set on the couch unless I’m watching a movie, and that isn’t often. That works out well. But the other night he somehow got into my bedroom and you guessed it –he peed on my bed. I didn’t discover this until I was about to crawl into bed about ten thirty –and what’s worse, I had just changed the sheets earlier that evening. Since I only have two pairs of sheets, this was obviously not good. Being sleepy I did the only thing I could think to do –threw the sheets in the washer and then dried them. Finally, I put the fresh sheets on the (cleaned) bed about eleven thirty and went to sleep.
Now, why am I confessing this? Because I think it points out the ways we’ve been taught to do things and highlights one of the arguments against change. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say that they just can’t do things any differently because it would be impossible or too difficult. Laundry is a case in point. I’ve heard a lot of people say they would never give up their washer and dryer come hell or high water. Now, I just don’t think dryers are necessary. (Washers are another story; I’ll give up every appliance in my house voluntarily if I get to keep the washer –even a communal washer –but if push comes to shove, even that’s negotiable.) That’s what the sun is for. Line-dried clothes may be stiffer, but they smell so much better. What else could I have done? I could have thrown the sheets in the washer, and laid a blanket over my bed for the night, and used another to cover with. Inconvenient? Yes. Difficult? Not really. Impossible? Certainly not. Sometimes eco-friendly alternatives just require a little bit of thought. Hard to do at eleven pm, but not impossible. ;-)
We’re getting rain here today. If it dries out later I’m going to go transplant some herbs. Otherwise, I’ll be stuck working here in the house today. Which means, among other things, cleaning my much neglected bathroom. Can’t you tell how thrilled I am at the prospect?

The Great Plastics Challenge

It’s long past time I wrote about this, so here goes. Hey, it’s only a month late! ;-)

As some regular readers will recall, my February challenge was to bring NO plastics into the house save for packaging –and to minimize that. (For those who are interested, my March challenge was simply surviving mid-terms and term paper season –I’ll start a new challenge next month.) So how did I do? Did I manage to go a whole month without bringing plastics into the house?

Almost. I did really slip up around the middle of the month when I had strep throat. For the first time since I was about twelve, I might add. I ended up bringing in some plastic grocery bags because I was too befuddled to remember my own when I left for the store, and some of those little plastic tubs of yogurt. (Yogurt, believe it or not, is a really good immune system booster, and also helps digestive track problems.)

Other than that, how did it go? Surprisingly well. The short list of plastics that came into the house last month includes: the top on a half gallon of organic milk, a box of trash bags (I haven’t yet figured out an alternative to those), a carton of eggs, some tea in plastic jugs that was leftover from my church potluck and which I wasn’t about to waste, some sealant rings on food, and a bit of shrink wrap. Oh yes, and a plastic juice bottle someone threw into the bushes at school. I picked it up and brought it home for recycling. That was about it. I’m not counting the bags of recyclables (mostly plastic) that I brought home from my grandmother’s a few times to put on the curb. She lives in a condo without recycling service, so she sends her stuff home with me.

I consider this to be quite an achievement. When you consider the assorted plastic tubs, jugs, and bottles that most people use every month –not to mention all the other plastics –I used 90% less than most Americans! Now, this doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to make this goal every month. Some of the food I buy will inevitably come in plastic containers –peanut butter for example, which is a staple around my house. But this is a goal to strive for, and I intend to keep it up. The second part of the plastics challenge will be to reduce the amount of plastic in the house. I want to replace all the plastic storage containers, utensils, etc. But this will be a much longer-term challenge. I’ll have to replace all of those things slowly, as money and time allows. I think my next task will be to reduce the amount of wood pulp products (paper, cardboard, etc) that comes into the house. I’ve all ready stopped using paper towels, but I need to see how much more I can cut back.

Wasting Resources

I have a bit of an obsession with resource conservation. I know this is so and am admitting to it openly. Yesterday I grabbed three plastic bags after the church potluck. Someone had brought their contributions in these bags, and they were going to be thrown out. So I snagged them, brought them home, and tossed them in the recycling bin. I completely forgot about my vow not to bring any plastic into the house this month, but I do not think this action breaks that vow. I also have 500 Cracker Barrel menus in my car right now. That’s right, 500. I intend to tear them up slowly over the next several days and then compost them. Why do I have 500 Cracker Barrel menus? Because the store where I work was using a new test menu, and it didn’t work out, so today we were converting back to the core menu. All of the test menus were thrown out last night. I managed to convince a manager to let me have an entire ream of (completely unused) test menus, and they are going to be composted for my garden. (The manager had no idea what composting was and thought I was a bit soft in the head, but that’s another issue entirely.) I recycle or reuse everything that can be done so. I’ve gotten my trash flow down to about one bag a week, not counting litter box changes. I even use junk mail envelopes and announcements as dog toys; my little poodle loves to shred paper! So yes, I have a mild to moderate obsession with resource management. However, I am not entirely sure this is an unhealthy obsession, given our culture’s profligacy with resources.

Case in Point 1: Cracker Barrel. This one company uses 6% of the world’s maple syrup. That’s six percent of all the maple syrup made in the world, every single year. How does this happen? Extreme waste. Whenever someone orders anything that needs syrup, they send out a 1.7 oz bottle of pure maple syrup. If this sounds like a lot, it is. A normal size bottle is about 8 ounces. No one uses that much syrup on pancakes, and whatever is left in the bottle (usually 2/3 or even more) is thrown out. That’s right, they throw it out. (Assuming the person doesn’t take the bottle home, which does occasionally happen.) I got pancakes one day –long story –and brought my bottle home because I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting all that syrup. Two weeks later, I still have some left after using it in my oatmeal just about every morning. Does this policy make any sense to anyone else? It’s no wonder their food costs are so high! I could go on and on about the other waste issues in the restaurant business, but I think I’ve made my point.

Case in Point 2: my classes this semester. The workload is kicking my butt, which is the reason I haven’t been blogging as much. I have a presentation to make in each class. It’s a group presentation. In my occupational psych class my group is all ready preparing. Here is what my group wants to do (aside from me), and this is considered standard in grad classes apparently: hand out a folder to every person in class (all 30 of them) containing at least two handouts from each person in the group, and a CD containing the entire presentation. Oh yeah, and serve dinner: they want to do fried chicken and sides from Wal-Mart. I’m sorry, but this whole plan has left me aghast. It’s a waste of time, money, and most of all resources. The folders are bad enough, but feeding an entire class a fried chicken dinner is just over the top. Even if I had the money to participate in this madness (and believe me, I don’t) I couldn’t do so in good conscience. But now I’m left in the uncomfortable position of having to explain my reasoning to my teammates without sounding like a skinflint. The trouble is, I have no idea of how to do this.

And these are just a couple of examples. Our entire lifestyle is completely crazy. It’s no wonder the U.S. and Britain are sending their garbage to China now –we don’t have room for it here!